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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Cheeky B*stard, Thursday August 28US ROYALTY RECORD RELEASE PARTYLUIZA OF CSS DJSUS ROYALTY AND BAND OF THIEVES PLAY LIVE

We've got a nice little indie rock line up for you this week, as we are hosting the Record Release Party for one of the most exciting emerging bands around: U.S. Royalty.The lovely and talented Luiza of Brazilian indie-electro-rock outfit CSS will be DJing plus...US Royalty will be performing live, along with the excellent Band of Thieves. Ooh Yeah!

Lucky Beer Open Bar 10pm-11pm

Free with RSVP - email Event@GBH.tv with your name and number of guests.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

• Deluxe Boxset: A deluxe boxset will be available solely from The Verve's Official Store. This version will consist of a double heavyweight gatefold LP vinyl (containing two bonus tracks not on the CD version of the album), limited edition CD & DVD edition of the album, and an exclusive memorabilia tour book.

• CD & DVD Package: Available from play.com for £8.95 Delivered: A special CD and DVD package, featuring an exclusive band documentary and live footage from The Verve's headlining appearance at Coachella in May 2008, packaged in a case bound tour book.

• Heavyweight LP: Available exclusively from The Verve's Official Store: LP includes 2 tracks not featured on the CD or CD/DVD albums.

• Original CD Album: You can also buy the standard CD album FROM The Verve's Official Store.

• Digital Download:Itunes:If you pre-order the album from itunes you'll receive 'Judas' as soon as you place your order, as well as exclusive live versions of 'Lucky Man' live from Coachella 2008 and 'A New Decade' live from Glastonbury 2008.7 Digital: Album Of The Week: 'Forth' is available at a special price of £5 until the end of next week.

Monday, August 18, 2008

My friend BrianMontuori, who is also an incredible artist, sent this over to me the other day because it looks exactly like him. He suggested that I share it with his doppelganger Alex Shenitsky... but I thought I'd share it with the world as well. This dude in this photo looks so much like Brian. Less so like Alex, but funny none-the-less:

Saturday, August 16, 2008

I think a huge part of adulthood is the ability to admit and face your faults. Sometimes those faults are so hidden in the back of your subconscious, that they have a hard time coming to the surface. I think that's been happening to me lately. It simply took some sort of friendly reminder of conversations in the past, advice given in the past, and warnings given in the past. Admitting to yourself that you messed up is half the battle. Having the opportunity to admit to someone else that you really fucked up is the other half. I think that deep down inside I knew that, and that's why I was in such a funk for so long.

Human relationships are hard. I like the ones I have with animals.

Last night was the weekly Hanger Bar party, which I had to DJ alone since Karen has fucked off to the UK to visit friends and enjoy some festivals. I have some pretty awesome friends that decided to keep me company since I'm thinking about taking some time off from my Friday gig to enjoy the last days of summer without major obligations. Jordan Silver came. He's newly unemployed after giving up his amazing job at Tom Brown to become a poet. Writing that sentence is probably as weird as reading it. Peter Gaston came after spending the entire day at home working since the interwebs at his office went down. Nicole Smith came with her roommate for her last friday in NYC (so sad!!!!). Brian Battjer came. He's usually the voice of reason in my life and was the only person to help me get over my dog Maxine's death a few years back. Once again he came through. I love having him in my life.

I DJed a bit of 90s music -- as per usual -- but threw in a lot of modern tracks, which I have been slightly reluctant to play out. An adorable boy came over to celebrate my 90s selection and asked if I would play a Sugar Ray song. I know, I know, they're pretty fucking awful, but this boy was adorable and so I couldn't resist. He ended up pulling a pen from a book in his bag and jotted his number on one of my cd cases. "I'm here til tuesday... then I leave for Paris for 4 months. Please call me, I'd love to hang out with you." I asked him to include his name with his number and he was off. The week before a cute boy gave me his number and it was later revealed that he too would be leaving 4 days later for an extended period of time. Peter suggested that I make this a weekly occurrence: boys excitingly giving me their number... but only if they are here for like 4 more days. It's like traveling around the world, but without leaving the island.

Today I went to some outdoor electronic music thing called the Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival, with my friend Heather and Gurj... and Monkey! It was this cool thing by the Gawanus Canal in Carroll Gardens with electronic music (duh), delish mexican food, drinks, and your obligatory Brooklyn family or seven. Monkey was a huge hit and she nommed on corn on the cob like the cutest little alien dog that she is.

I'm off to the movies now with Brian, Meredith, Matt and Elle. We're going to see Topic Thunder or whatever it's called with Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. in black face. Matt and I were on the Weekly Riff on FUSE yesterday and the movie was one of the topics. I'm excited to see if it's actually any good. It's also nice to have Matt back in my life.

In case you missed the Weekly Riff last night, you can see something right here.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

The lyrics have been really speaking to me. I don't really know how to address a recent event in my life, but this song does it better than I could ever imagine someone doing it who doesnt know me:

when your sparkle evades your souli`ll be at your side to consolewhen your standing on the window ledgei`ll talk you back from the edgei will turn your tidebe your shepard and your guidewhen your lost in the deep and darkest place aroundmay my words walk you home safe and soundwhen you say that im no good and you feel like walkingi need to make sure you know thats just the prescription talkingwhen your feet decide to walk you on the wayward sideup upon the stairs and down the downward slidei will turn your tidedo all that i can to heal you insidei`ll be the angel on your shouldermy name is geraldine, im your social worker

i see you need mei know you do

I've been going out so much lately. I am really trying to get back to my old self that people who have been reading this blog say they miss. I miss her too, you know. I feel like i'm back at zero or closer to zero -- which is where I was when I started this blog which i used to document my adventures.

I spent the past two and a half years working incredibly hard on two things. By the end of the second year, one of those things started killing me inside. I would come home miserable and crying because I felt like things were beyond repair. When a plug was pulled I rejoiced. My life felt like it was given a second chance. Another aspect of my life was given a chance to be evaluated. Sometimes we evaluate the progress on things differently than people involved, but either way, that other thing in my life is over and now I'm back to being this little jewish girl living in her lower east side apartment, scamming after boys and falling in love with bands. The blockage has left the brain/heart.

I recently spent two days in Killers land with Karen. She and I needed a return to 2004 desperately. We went to see them at Highline Ballroom, which was a secret show I think, and my buddy Ryan Pardey (aka the Captain ... for fans of Sawdust) and his new band Halloween town, were opening. Ryan had given me the heads up about his band warning that I might not really like them... or i might LOVE THEM. I'm typically a supportive friend and am generally just happy to see people I know get on stage and perform in front of a group of people.

I forget how he described them to me, but I would describe them as being some what Grandaddy-ish. Less spacey and more to the point though. Anyway, at first I stood as close to the stage as I could get -- which happened to be next to a bunch of buddies I went to high school with in Tenafly. Karen stood behind me and we cheered our friend on in support. I wasn't a fan off the bat, but I thought they were good. I turned to Karen and said "They're not bad!" She shrugged her shoulders and nodded. By the time they played a song that might be called "I Miss My Wife," the entire audience was hushed, staring up onto the stage with their mouths hanging open.

Ryan is a brooding type of guy. He's over six feet, has red hair and a red beard and intense eyes. That's him on the left:

I eventually turned to Karen and said "Holy shit, they're fucking awesome." Something had suddenly connected with the band, Ryan, and the audience to this cosmic fantastic second. It was one of those revealing moments that I forgot existed. Finally, I saw Ryan as this wonderful performer -- the guy he kept on telling me he was -- and not just as the sweet dude I hang out with every few months and text with occasionally. Up on stage he was slowly transforming himself from awkwardness to Ian Curtis embodying frontdude (turns out he watched Control about three times that week).

I ended up rounding up my girls and forcing them on a road trip to the Foxwoods to see the band play. We managed to run down to the front of the stage and sing and dance to all the songs we love so dear. At one point Brandon waved at us -- not sure how he didnt laugh his ass off since we definitely looked dumb as fuck. Mark told us he tried not to look at us cos it would throw him off. After the show in the dressing room I told Brandon how I really needed to get back to 2004 and he thought it was crazy that I was nostalgic for that specific year. But things were just so much easier then, weren't they?

About Me

Sarah Lewitinn (born February 3, 1980), also known by her nickname Ultragrrrl, is a music critic, DJ, and blogger. She gained notoriety as an assistant editor at SPIN Magazine.
In 2006, New York magazine named Lewitinn as one of "The Most Influential People in Music", citing that "she has more power than any print music critic".